Charles and Richard Chapter 24

Charles felt, through his forearms, Richard’s hands gripping his arms trembling violently. Richard shook as if he were dying. After a moment, when he pulled his lips away, his handsome face was filled with sadness and an incomprehensibly firm resolve. Before Charles could explain anything, he spoke first.

R: Who was that?

There was no way he could answer. Charles didn’t even know the guy’s name. But he didn’t want to tell Richard that he had kissed someone whose name he didn’t know. When Charles remained silent, Richard asked again.

R: A friend?

Charles nodded in place of an answer. It was cowardly, but he had no choice. Richard stared intently at Charles. As if trying to tell whether he was lying or not. Charles didn’t look away. In fact, he couldn’t. It was nearly impossible to tear his gaze away from Richard’s clear, beautiful eyes. Those eyes were steeped in sadness. Though he was questioning Charles as if interrogating him, Richard looked like he was about to cry at any moment. Charles didn’t dare comfort him.

R: We’re friends, Charles…?

C: ….

R: If I can keep being friends with you…

C: ….

R: I can kiss you too, as much as you want.

Before Charles could even grasp what those words meant, Richard kissed him again. This time it was much shorter than before. His reddened lips, which had briefly clung and pulled away, whispered again.

R: You’ll keep being friends with me, right?

C: ….

R: Please. Please, Charles….

Richard cupped Charles’s cheeks and kissed him briefly again. When he pulled back, tears were streaming down Richard’s face. Charles stared blankly at Richard’s increasingly wet eyelashes, then finally nodded. Even so, Richard’s expression didn’t brighten. He looked at Charles, tears silently streaming down, then lowered his head. Charles opened his mouth.

C: …Yeah. We’ll keep being friends.

The magical moment Charles had felt in Richard’s kiss just moments ago evaporated in an instant, and Charles returned once more to a state of numbness.

Even though he had gotten the answer he wanted, Richard looked dejected. He slumped his shoulders and sniffled with tears. When a guy as big as him looked depressed, it seemed several times sadder than anyone else. Even so, Charles didn’t feel like comforting him. Charles sat quietly beside him.

They sat on the landing, dangled their feet in the lake, and spent time in silence. Once Charles’s shorts had mostly dried, they took the bus back together. It was late afternoon. When Charles tried to head home, Richard stopped him.

R: Actually, I asked your mom today too, because I was worried you might not come, and that’s how I ended up at the lake.

C: ….

R: So… you can go pick up your mom today.

Instead of answering, Charles nodded. Richard quietly looked down at Charles’s head for a moment. They stood in front of the bus stop, maintaining an awkward silence.

The street was still quiet. Aside from people walking their dogs, a few people sat on café terraces, leisurely smoking. Charles still wasn’t ready to blend into this peaceful scene. His mind was swirling with so many thoughts that he couldn’t pin down any single one. He had so many thoughts that it felt like his head was empty instead. He didn’t have the confidence to go pick up his mom, chat with her as if nothing had happened, and go home.

So Charles couldn’t move his feet and just stood still in front of the bus stop. Richard watched Charles like that. He spoke to the silent Charles. Richard’s voice was still damp.

R: I’ll take your mom home today, so you go home, Charles.

Charles stood still with his head bowed, then without answering, turned and walked away.

∞ ∞ ∞

After the incident at the lake, the two boys were awkward for a while. But Richard quickly repaired the relationship. He came over to Charles’s house all weekend. They did puzzles together. Richard also liked using his head, so he sat persistently and worked on the puzzle. There was no need to force conversation, and since it was an activity they did together, the awkward atmosphere between them gradually faded. After a few hours, the awkwardness had completely disappeared.

They pushed the lunch their parents had prepared to one side of the table and devoted themselves passionately to the puzzle. They would fit a few pieces together, then take a spoonful of rice. As for why the boys were so absorbed in the puzzle—in Charles’s case, it was to stop thinking altogether, and in Richard’s case, he seemed to genuinely find the puzzle fun. Charles had spent all of Friday thinking about Richard but couldn’t predict anything, yet here they were the next day doing puzzles side by side—it made him anxious but also put his mind somewhat at ease.

On Saturday, Richard quietly did puzzles and went home. When he came over on Sunday, they gave Cherry a bath together. While scrubbing Cherry’s paws, Richard suddenly asked.

R: Do you want to come to my place on Monday?

C: Your place?

R: Yeah. Let’s hang out at my house.

Charles thought he should refuse. It might cross a line. But in the end, he couldn’t say no.

On the other hand, he was also curious about Richard’s house. Come to think of it, Charles knew almost nothing about Richard. What school he went to, where he lived now, why he ended up working as a mechanic—and he knew nothing about his life in London either. It was an awkward topic to suddenly bring up one day, so he had kept putting it off. He had figured that someday Richard would bring it up first.

On Monday, Charles went to the garage to meet Richard at his quitting time. They put off building the tire fort for another day and headed to Richard’s place. Richard lived in an apartment near the city center. It wasn’t a luxurious place like the house he used to live in. It was rather an ordinary, old apartment. It had two rooms, a living room that doubled as a kitchen, and a small bathroom. The whole place was smaller than the bathroom of the mansion Richard used to live in. Charles didn’t ask why he lived in such a small place. He just looked at the somewhat messy apartment and said one thing.

C: You should clean up a bit.

R: Oh, but I do clean—this is me having cleaned….

Richard hurriedly picked up the socks and pants lying around the living room floor and stuffed them into the laundry basket. Charles watched Richard closely, then opened the refrigerator. Sure enough, aside from a single rotting apple, there was nothing in it. Not even a water bottle. Charles was dumbfounded, but again, he didn’t ask about it. In fact, he had planned not to ask Richard anything today.

Today’s plan was to play a few rounds of games, eat dinner, and leave relatively early. After having kissed last time, he was trying to be careful. But Charles’s plan fell apart too quickly. As Charles closed the refrigerator door and sighed, Richard slipped up in front of him and suddenly kissed the corner of his mouth. Charles looked up at Richard in surprise. Richard smiled shyly.

R: Let’s have some fun.

That wasn’t what he wanted to hear after a kiss. It might have been the most terrible thing he’d ever heard after a kiss. Charles gazed steadily at Richard, who was smiling sheepishly, then suddenly pulled him into an embrace. In the blink of an eye, closing the distance between them, Charles kissed Richard without hesitation. Thoughts of not crossing the line flew far, far away.